8 - The Cope Family

Household eight was a small one with a young couple named William (24) and Ann (25) who had been married on 28th September 1868 in Cheadle.

William Cope was the son of a collier named John Cope and his mother was Mary Whitelegg from Norbury. John died when William was young and Mary then Hiram Robinson (Household 11), Samuel Robinson's brother. William and his older sister Sarah were accepted by Hiram as his stepchildren.

Ann Cope (nee Rhodes) was born in Hulme, Manchester to John Rhodes, a butler, and Elizabeth Timperley.

In 1871 William Cope was working as a hatter like his stepfather Hiram, but by 1881 we discover that he had begun his own business as a fishmonger. The business would continue for almost 20 years but as he reached his older years William's life was less of a success.

William began drinking heavily and Ann, unable to put up with her husband, left the family home. As his life began to unravel, so did his business. It closed at the end of the 19th century. As the 20th century began, William was alone and unemployed. In March he walked to the Peak Forest Canal, tied his feet to a tree and let himself fall into the water where he drowned.

Widowed Ann moved to a house at Haughton Green where she lived alone.